OERu/Strategic plan 2014 - 2017/Strategic plan 2015 - 2017/Strategic plan/Goal 4

Goal 4: Foster innovation through pilot projects which demonstrate the viability and strategic opportunities for the OERu network

OERu pilots are projects which are implemented by one or more OERu partners designed to prove the viability of new approaches and technologies that improve efficiency or serve as a proof of concept for innovations or new business services enabled by the disaggregation of services in the OERu model.

The OERu innovation pilots for demonstrating viable solutions for the future are successful when:

1. Succeed in reducing cost, widening access or improving quality of the OERu delivery model;
2. Tangible benefits which individual partners can extract from the OERu network increase.

Objective 1: Identify, design and implement OERu pilot projects to inform future improvements and innovations in the OERu model

Plan targets	Key performance indicator
2014 Baseline	SP4Ed prototype embedding mOOC for full-fee registered students studying in parallel with free OERu learners. 2014 Google Summer of Code project to develop peer evaluation prototype Concept idea for OERu credit-bearing course on how to develop a portfolio for Recognition of Prior Learning
2015 Operational target	Progress the implementation of 2 pilot projects Identify 1 new high-priority pilot project for implementation
2017 Strategic target	4 OERu pilots successfully completed
Risk: OERu does not leverage incremental design to keep abreast with a volatile and rapidly changing higher education market.

Strategic approach

1. The OERu subscribes to a design-based research approach where pilots are conceptualised and implemented iteratively in authentic settings.
2. Project steps are informed by a series of Probe (making a change), Sense (review), Respond (act) cycles so that each iteration is small enough to fail but when aggregated help to inform overall decision-making.

2015 Operational considerations

1. Progress the collaborative design and development of a credit bearing OERu course on how to develop a Recognition of Prior Learning Portfolio
2. Initiate the design and development of an OERu micro-course which can be used by two or more OERu partners as part of delivery to full-fee students studying in parallel with free OERu learners.
3. Consider and select viable candidates for two potential OERu pilot projects. (Possible candidates: OERu course to prepare learners for the College Level Examination Program (CLEP); OERu solutions for automated assessment, eg collaborative development of a shared assessment bank; Adaptive learning prototype as mechanism for OERu learning support; Other?)